Samedi 25 Juillet

20h, Église Sainte-Eugénie de Saillagouse

Musique de chambre des Pays-Bas, de Catalogne et de France

Sebastian Huydts (Pays-Bas), Corentin Boissier (France), Moisès Bertran (Catalogne)

  • Sebastian Huydts
  • Corentin Boissier
  • Moisès Bertran
Invités au festival

Programme

Sebastian Huydts (1966): Sonata Op. 40 (2018)

  • Andante rubato
  • Allegrissimo
  • Tranquillo e rubato
  • Alla breve, tempo giusto

Ala Voronkova, violon; Sebastian Huydts, piano

Moisès Bertran:

  • Crossing over parallel 38th (2020)

Ala Voronkova, violon; Guerassim Voronkov, piano

  • Sis preludis per a piano

Guerassim Voronkov, piano

Corentin Boissier (1995): Sonata nº 1 pour violon et piano

  • Lento grave – Allegro non troppo
  • Scherzo – Presto con brio
  • Recitativo – Allegro moderato ma risoluto

Ala Voronkova violon, Nicolas Licciardi, piano

Sebastian Huydts

Sebastian Huydts (b.1966)

Sebastián Huydts naquit en 1966 à Hilversum (Pays-Bas). Il étudia avec Edith Lateiner Grosz au Conservatoire d’Amsterdam. Il compléta sa formation avec Rian de Waal et Tan Crone à La Haye, et participa à diverses master classes et conférences avec György Sebök, Stephen Bishop et Earl Wild. Comme soliste il a joué avec orchestre et dans des groupes de musique de chambre. Ses performances ont été diffusées à la radio aux États-Unis, aux Pays-Bas et en Espagne. Comme compositeur, son répertoire comprend des œuvres pour voix, sonates, trios, quatuors, quintettes, octuor, divers concerts avec orchestre et musique d’enfants. Son style combine les innovations du XXe siècle avec des éléments plus traditionnels de la musique occidentale. Dans plusieurs de ses compositions, le piano joue un rôle de premier plan.

En 1993, le département de musique de l’Université de Chicago lui décerna une bourse pour étudier la composition. Ses principaux professeurs étaient Shulamit Rahn, John Eaton, Marta Ptaszynska, Cliff Colnot et Howard Sandroff. Il étudia la réalisation avec Barbara Schubert. Au cours de ses études, il reçut le Master en composition et le prix Paul et Olga Mann pour son concerto pour piano et son double orchestre à cordes.

Sebastián Huydts reçut des commandes d’organisations telles que le Rhijnauwen Chamber Music Festival, le DuPage Symphony Orchestra, les Chicago Chamber Musicians, les Rembrandt Chamber Players, l’Orion Ensemble, le Sebastián String Quartet et l’American Composer’s Forum, ainsi que des solistes tels que Keith Conant, Katinka Kleijn, Florentina Ramnisceanu et Claire Chase. En 2004, son musique pour flûte et piano, enregistrée par Mary Stolper pour Cedille Records, reçut de très bonnes critiques dans le magazine Anglais Gramophone. En 2018, son CD «Delicias de Blancanieves» reçut le prix argent de Golden Globe Awards.

Depuis juin 2003, Sebastián Huydts partage son temps entre Chicago et Barcelone, où il travaille en tant que musicien indépendant. Il se produit fréquemment avec des musiciens de l’Orchestre Symphonique de Barcelone et National de Catalogne. Depuis août 2018, il dirige le département de musique du Columbia College de Chicago.

Corentin Boissier

Corentin Boissier (1995) compose sur partition dès l’âge de six ans. Il est remarqué par le compositeur Thierry Escaich : « Il possède déjà de réelles qualités qui feront de lui un musicien complet. Il a déjà un véritable sens de la couleur harmonique, un sens de l’invention et surtout du renouvellement, une invention rythmique – bref, diverses ouvertures d’esprit qui laissent présager un réel tempérament de créateur ».

Après avoir suivi les cycles spécialisés d’Écriture et d’Orchestration au CRR de Paris où il obtient les deux Diplômes d’Etudes Musicales (DEM) avec « Mention Très Bien », il obtient en 2019 le Master d’Écriture Supérieure au CNSM de Paris avec quatre Prix « Mention Très Bien » : Harmonie, Contrepoint, Fugue & Formes, Polyphonie ; et sept Certificats (Orchestration, Arrangement, Analyse…) Son Mémoire sur Le mini piano concerto des années 40-60 : une vogue déclenchée par le « Warsaw Concerto » de Richard Addinsell a reçu les félicitations du jury.

Soucieux d’écrire une musique classique directement accessible, Corentin Boissier a composé à ce jour une vingtaine d’œuvres dans un esprit néo-romantique. Sa ballade pour saxophone alto et piano De Minuit à l’Aube est créée aux Musicales de Bagnac-sur-Célé de 2014 par le duo Christine Marchais et Marc Sieffert. Sa rencontre avec le jeune pianiste multi-lauréat Philippe Hattat donne lieu aux créations de sa Sonate pour piano n°1 « Romantica », de sa Double Toccata, de sa pièce de concert Solitude ainsi que de trois de ses 24 Preludes to Travel.

​Ses trois pièces pour piano Romantic Young Ladies sont enregistrées et mises en ligne sur YouTube par la concertiste italienne Annarita Santagada. Son Glamour Concerto, version pour piano solo, est enregistré en 2016 au Québec par la concertiste Minna Re Shin. L’Aria of Past Times est interprétée successivement par la soprano Sayuri Araida, le baryton Aurélien Gasse, l’harmoniciste Claude Saubestre, la flûtiste Iris Daverio et le violoncelliste Eric Tinkerhess. Ce dernier crée en concert la Sonate pour violoncelle et piano avec l’auteur au piano.

Corentin Boissier and concert pianist Célia Oneto Bensaid at the Salle Cortot (Paris) after the world premiere of his Sonata Appassionata. Attiré par tous les aspects de l’Écriture musicale, Corentin Boissier consacre une part de son activité à l’orchestration et à l’arrangement. Entre autres, son orchestration de la 9ème des Neuf Pièces pour piano op. 24 d’Alfredo Casella est jouée par l’orchestre des Gardiens de la Paix en 2016 à l’Église Saint-Joseph des Nations ; son orchestration du Passepied de Debussy est donnée en concert à l’Auditorium Marcel Landowski à Paris ; son arrangement du standard jazz Caravan, pour le Local Brass Quintet, est joué au Musée de l’Orangerie, à Paris, en 2017. À propos de son orchestration de l’Humoresque de Poulenc, le compositeur Nicolas Bacri lui écrit : « Bravo pour votre orchestration. C’est très bien entendu et tout à fait dans le style ».

 En février 2018, sa Sonate pour piano n°2 « Appassionata » a été créée à la Salle Cortot, à Paris, par la concertiste Célia Oneto Bensaid. Un enregistrement vidéo réalisé en studio a été mis en ligne sur YouTube. L’Association « Le Capil » pour la Promotion du Patrimoine de La Llagonne le nomme Coordinateur artistique chargé des concerts de musique classique (musique de chambre et musique instrumentale) organisés chaque année durant la saison estivale à La Llagonne (Pyrénées-Orientales).

Ses deux concertos pour piano et orchestre (Glamour Concerto et Philip Marlowe Concerto) ont été enregistrés par la concertiste britannique Valentina Seferinova et l’Ukrainian Festival Orchestra sous la direction du chef d’orchestre américain John McLaughlin Williams.

Presentation

Sebastian Huydts: Sonata

Program notes:

I started the Sonata for Violin and Piano Opus 40 in the fall of 2009, but I did not find a satisfactory way to develop the work to its full potential. As such, I left the sonata unfinished until summer 2018, when new ideas as well as the request from the violin- piano duo Bow and Hammer motivated me to pick up the work again. While I kept most of the original thematical material, I reworked the structure, and added a fourth movement to bring the work to a close.

The careful listener may find this music intense, and discern a state of conflict offering scant moments of respite. Vaguely dissonant underlying sonorities disturb even the tranquil passages; calm is always deceptive and an ominous unease permeates the music. Unlike most of my works, no literary influence exists, although I admit that the times we live in have had a pronounced effect on my musical thought. Spread over four movements, the work is lengthy. While writing longer works may not be common contemporary practice, I felt that the the musical objects I used called for ample time to completely develop and transform their potential to reach a satisfactory experience on the part of the listener. As such, the sonata follows in the footsteps of the great composers for this genre.

The first movement introduces a long phrase performed by the violin and accompanied by the piano in so-called open fifths. This creates the solemn and serious atmosphere that prevails until the piano introduces a repetitive knocking motive in the bass, like someone desparatily seeking attention. Tension increases, a climax is reached that is suddenly interrupted, making way for charged silence and sparsity. Little by little the energy dissipates to allow the movement to end in calm resignation.

The opening of the second movement lifts the first movement’s dark atmosphere, and starts off as a virtuoso, almost careless scherzo. This joyful atmosphere is not to last, for the bubbly passagework suddenly transforms into something rather disquieting. The ensuing passage gradually dies down to make way for a contrasting middle section that introduces irregularly repeated chords with trills followed by long declamatory lines. Steely and repetitive, like the bars of a cage, the repeated chords intensify their dissonance and accompany the violin in a procession-like section eventually culminating in an angular, decidedly more demonic restatement of the beginning of the scherzo movement. Suddenly, the knocking bass motive from the first movement returns, leading to a similar climax as before. Again the music abruptly stops without reaching a conclusion. Instead, a few jack-hammer like chords follow and the propulsive energy from before seemingly dissipates. Yet, over soaring long tones held by the violin, the tension persists until the very last moment.

The third movement finds a balance between repose and calm inquietude. Previously heard melodies and motives return— harmonically speaking—in a far more relaxed atmosphere, largely free of the jarring dissonance heard earlier. But the deceptive calm that reigns for almost half the movement’s duration feel more like a bleak winter sun after a period of stormy weather. Inevitably, a darker mood creeps in once again. The opening phrase of the first movement returns, this time in more regular and predictable rhythm. Unlike the previous movements, the music avoids violence as a slow upward transposition tries to escape from the dark. A transformed climax of the previous movements ensues. Rather than the expected catharsis, it instead offers a prolonged state of warmth and bliss that gradually desintegrates as the movement draws to a close.

The last movement follows the previous one without pause. As if to make a point, the violin re-introduces—and incessantly repeats—the last bars of the first movement’s opening phrase, accompanied by the piano with an irregular ostinato. In an extended development section that consists of an amalgamation of all events previously heard in the sonata, the disconcerting knocking motive of the first and second movements returns again, leading to a tumultuous repeat of the climactic section of the first movement mixed with the rhythms of the last. This time, the climax is completely worked out and runs its course after which the frenetic energy dissipates to make way for a brief moment of confusion, out of which a reminiscence of the very opening of the sonata appears, interjected by sinister little reminders of the ostinato of the last movement. In the concluding measures the movement gradually reaches a state of resignation. The work is dedicated to Katharyn Cho and Elizabeth Newkirk of the Duo « Bow and Hammer », in recognition of their tireless promotion of classical chamber music in innovative settings. The duration of the sonata is ca. 39 minuts.

Moisès Bertran

Moisès Bertran. Born in Catalunya in 1967 and also a Colombian citizen since 2011, Moisès Bertran i Ventejo holds the degrees of Piano; Solfeggio and Theory; and Composition from the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu de Barcelona. He has also earned the degrees of Master in Music and Doctor in Musical Arts from The Hartt School (University of Hartford-USA). His main teachers have been Salvador Pueyo and James Sellars for composition, and Maria Jesús Crespo and Luiz de Moura Castro for piano performance.

Recipient of several international prizes, he has taught piano, theory, analysis, orchestration  and composition in Spain as well as in the USA and in Colombia, working for several institutions as follows: Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu de Barcelona; The Hartt School – University of Hartford (USA) and Universidad EAFIT (Medellín, Colombia), being in this last one the Dean of the Music Department. From 2008 to 2010 he was the Dean of the Conservatorio de Música of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá, where he currently is Tenure Professor in Composition with Exclusive Dedication.

His compositional output, nowadays with over 100 titles, ranges from piano solo works, chamber music, vocal music, opera, choir and symphonic pieces. In the past he revised and finished the Quintet for piano and strings op. 49 in g minor based on the surviving original manuscripts by Enric Granados, published by Editorial Boileau and recorded under the label COLUMNA MÚSICA [1CM0082-2001]. Also with this label he issued two monographic CDs of his music entitled: Variacions i Fantasia [1CM0172-2007], music for piano solo, piano four hands and chamber music; and Suau, la teva veu [1CM0307-2012), a production on his Lied output. In the past April 2016, he launched a new monographic CD with part of his symphonic music, together with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia and the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, featuring conductor Guerassim Voronkov, with whom in October 2017 premièred his first opera, The last day of Francisco Pizarro at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and also at the prestigious South-American hall Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo. Currently he is preparing a new monographic CD under the label COLUMNA MÚSICA together with performers Ala Voronkova and Guerassim Voronkov entitled Camins de vidre which will contain chamber music with an emphasis on the violin and written mainly to the request of Ala Voronkova; it will also feature the first commercial recording of Six Preludes for piano.

He has recently started to compose music with traditional instruments. With traditional Korean instruments he has composed: Haebangchon Trio, for Haegeum, Daegeum and Gayageum; Imagined recollections, for Haegeum, Piri-Taepyongso, Piano and Percussion; and A Gimhae Fantasy, for Gayageum ensemble and two percussionists. Tres Instants en la Memòria is his contribution to repertoire for the Tenora (Catalan wind double-reed instrument) as a concertino for the instrument and symphonic orchestra.

From 2003 to 2008 he was the Director of the Semana Colombo-Catalana, festival of Colombian and Catalan contemporary music in Colombia sponsored principally by the Institut Ramon Llull (Catalunya), and the Colombian universities Universidad EAFIT  and Universidad Nacional de Colombia. He was elected member of the American Music Honor Society Pi Kappa Lambda in 1994 and also member of the Associació Catalana de Compositors (ACC) since 1993. Clivis Publicacions, La Mà de Guido, Amalgama-Tritó, Dinsic Publicacions Musicals and Editorial Boileau publish his music. www.moisesbertran.com

Crossing over parallel 38th (2020), it is originally the second movement of Imagined recollections, the result of a commission by wonderful Korean Haegeum performer Kang Eun-Il. Imagined recollections dwells upon the times of the Korean War and it is composed in three movements by the titles of “Feeling anguish in the air”; “Crossing over parallel 38th”; and “Dancing round for a new hope”. Crossing over parallel 38th expresses the impossibility of crossing the border between the two Koreas and broadly expresses the wish for the reunification of devided lands and peoples; expresses in short the wish for a peaceful world. Originally scored for traditional Korean Haegeum and piano, this new version for violin and piano stands as an independent work and it is dedicated to my beloved Ju-Yong Ha, key person for my work with Korean music and great support and inspiration.

Six Preludes for Piano (2011). I compose the initial ideas for this work during a staying of several months in Budapest (Hungary) in the second half of 2010. I wrote the initial gestures of each of the piano preludes in one evening when the inspiration for composing a new piece for piano captivated me; writing a collection of piano preludes working each one on a single interval. That way they were born: Prelude I, playing with the interval of the second; Prelude II, working on thirds; Prelude III, on fourths: Prelude IV, based on fifths; Prelude V, on sixths; and Prelude VI, playing primarily with intervals of sevenths. This was only the initial idea that made me start the beginnings of each one of them; some months later I reassumed the work to finish the composition of the set in January 2011. A year later I revised the work and gave the pieces their final presentation. Despite the initial technical intervallic thought for the piano preludes, the work wants to be an inspired collection of suggesting pieces midway between a collection of piano studies and a set of character pieces. The form for each one is free, in the genuine prelude stile. Six Preludes for piano was given the Prize Maria Dolors Calvet i Prats, in Vilafranca del Penedès (Catalunya) in June 2012 and it is published by DINSIC Publicacions Musicals – Barcelona (www.dinsic.com)

Moisès Bertran